ALLERGIC NATION

More than half (54.3 percent) of the U.S. population is sensitive to one or more common allergens, placing them at risk for the development of asthma, hay fever and eczema.

The highest prevalence rates were for dust mite, rye, ragweed and cockroach, with about 25 percent testing positive to each allergen. Roughly 18 percent reacted to Bermuda grass, 17 percent to cat, 15 percent to Russian thistle, and 13 percent to white oak and mold. Peanut allergy was the least common, with 8.9 percent.

The findings, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, are based on results of allergy skin tests performed on 10,500 U.S. adults as part of the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

AGE AND HEART SURGERY

Cardiac surgery can be safely performed in octogenarians and may improve their life expectancy, according to the online issue of Heart. These findings are the latest to suggest that old age, per se, should not be a barrier to cardiac surgery.

Dr. Samer Nashef, from Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, UK, assessed the outcomes of 12,461 patients who underwent cardiac surgery between 1996 and 2003. Of these subjects, 706 were older than 80.

The hospital mortality rates for all patients and for octogenarians only were 3.9 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively. Both of these values were significantly lower than what was predicted using a standardized risk stratification system.

CREATING COUCH POTATOES

Kids whose parents do little to discourage bad eating habits and sedentary activities, such as television and video games, are significantly more likely to grow into overweight or obese adults, according to a study.

And kids don't appear to need to do much to stave off obesity in adulthood, for even those who replaced TV and video games with nonathletic activities such as jobs, marching bands and school clubs were less likely to carry excess weight into adulthood.

"When children are doing anything but sitting on the couch watching TV ...

they're much less likely to become obese," study author Ashley Fenzi Crossman, of Arizona State University in Tempe, said.

UNHEALTHY IGNORANCE

Many patients leave the hospital not knowing their diagnosis or the names of the medications they have been prescribed, let alone the purpose of these drugs and their side effects, a study suggests.

The researchers from State University of New York in Brooklyn surveyed 47 patients who were discharged from a teaching hospital in New York. The subjects were asked for their discharge diagnosis and for the names, purposes, and side effects of their prescribed medications.

Only 42 percent of patients knew their diagnosis, the investigators report in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Just 28 percent of patients were able to correctly state the names of all medications received. Thirty-seven percent knew the purpose of medications, and only 14 percent could list the common side effects.

YOU DON'T WANT FRIES WITH THAT

Very young children who eat french fries frequently have a much higher risk of breast cancer as adults, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

A study of American nurses found that one additional serving of fries per week at ages 3 to 5 increased breast cancer risk by 27 percent.

"Researchers are finding more evidence that diet early in life could play a role in the development of diseases in women later in life," said Dr. Karin Michels, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School, who led the study.